Dunki- A journey of life and death

Zahid Mehmood, a 28-year-old plumber, left eight years ago without informing his family for Dunki - a route of illegal immigration where he intended to reach Turkey for a bright future. On this journey, he felt many times that he might die.

His story is quite like Qasim Nawaz, a 29-year-old, rickshaw driver who aimed to go to Spain via Turkey. They both reached Quetta and were transported to the Iran border in inhumane conditions. Zahid went in a Vigo, a car meant for 10 people packed with 35 to 40 boys, while Qasim had to go in a car used for oil transportation,

"You see death in front of you in Dunki, but we still cross without hesitation," says Zahid while explaining how they had to walk for hours to enter Iran.

Qasim urges never to opt for this journey as even though you see dead bodies while crossing Maku mountain at the Iran-Turkey border, you never get the legal documents to stay in Turkey, and even Pakistanis loot their fellows who intend to go to Spain or Italy via Dunki.

He further said, "Agents lie, you don’t get food on the way, and once you reach, they don’t help you in getting work.’

Arif Hameed* has been an agent for 10 years, he helps people in Punjab with illegal immigration. He manages Dunki to Muscat, Turkey, Lybia via Dubai, and even Spain. This journey costs anywhere from PKR 50,000 to PKR 10 million, depending on the route and safety involved.

"An agent's work is essentially to lie. We guarantee to land the person in Turkey and take payment. Then, hand them over to whoever they specify, and that's it," he responded when asked why they don’t inform the people about the risks involved in this route and the unemployment afterward.

FIA (in)action?

Action against these agents is taken by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Pakistan but despite our multiple requests, we didn’t get a response from them to our questions regarding the effectiveness of these crackdowns.

A government entity that helps people in migration from Pakistan is the Migrant Resource Centre (MRC). Since 2016, the MRC has been providing potential and outgoing migrants with information and counseling in various areas, such as overseas employment, rights and protection of migrants, access to education systems in other countries, skills development, and vocational training programs in Pakistan.

The MRC works under the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MOPHRD) and the Department of Labour Punjab (DoL).